Harford Community College Receives Major National Science Foundation Grant

Harford Community College's Behavioral and Social Sciences division has been awarded a National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education grant in the amount of $427,181 to implement its Map Your Success: Enhancing Pathways in Geospatial Technology Through Community Partnerships project. For the next three years, the grant will help facilitate pathways into the Geospatial Technology (GST) Associate of Applied Science degree and for-credit certificate programs at the College.

As GST continues to be woven into government and industry applications, employers in the Mid-Atlantic and beyond increasingly need a workforce with the technical skills to create, develop, use, and analyze mapping and surveying technologies and products. The Map Your Success project will tap into these needs and create opportunities that will benefit the region.

Through the Map Your Success project’s diverse connections to schools, public and private employers, and communities where workforce development is needed, Harford expects to demonstrate and advance the high value and relevance of geospatial technology careers. With a focus on expanding workforce development and strengthening the GST programmatic focus in the Behavioral and Social Sciences division, the project draws on Advanced Technological Education (ATE) scholarship, including the work of the ATE-supported GeoTech Center, to promote understanding of how GST programs integrate traditional Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) skills with social and behavioral sciences. As a result of these efforts, the project will have a direct impact on our region by offering training opportunities for employers and opening a new pipeline into GST jobs for Harford’s students.

To facilitate the success of the Map Your Success project, Drs. Tamara Biegas and Tony Wohlers are serving as the principal and co-principal investigators, respectively.

The project is funded by the National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technological Education program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced technology fields that drive the nation’s economy.

This is the first National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education grant in the history of Harford’s Behavioral and Social Sciences division.